Faversham 10k

Faversham 10k, 21st September 2025. Race report by Phil Stevens

The Abbey School in Faversham was the location for the 9th of our 10 Club Champ races.
This was also the 9th Kent Grand Prix race which our Club Champs mirror.

Going into this race, out of 44 teams, TRAC were in the following positions:

Mens Team – 1st place (Maidstone and Petts Wood hot on our heels)
Ladies Team – 4th place (Maidstone – 3rd – in touching distance)
Individual Mens – Matt McCarthy in 2nd place overall (just behind 1st)
Individual Ladies – Our ladies captain Jo Kemp is in 1st place overall !!!

After a call to arms, there was a great TRAC turnout for this fixture. See how they did below…

Around 9am we all found ourselves on the school playing fields, where we were getting our race numbers, talking tactics, working out the best way to attach timing chips to laces and trying not to mention the hills at 3 and 8k.

The conditions were really good, probably 15 degrees cooler than a few days before and little wind. Perfect racing conditions (on a flat course!).

It was a wave start and we all started congregating near the start for a 10am start.

I’ve been injured with the dreaded Plantar Fasciitis (PF), so my game plan was to go steady/hard and look after it a bit.
If anyone at the club needs advice on PF, both Andy Jones (also going through it) and I are probably turning into experts and are happy to help. The happiest piece of advice I got from both the consultant and physio was that running (not crazy amounts) actually helps the recovery process and it will eventually go by itself. Well having not run much for 8 weeks, I didn’t need telling twice!!!

I last did this race in 2018 and the start/finish had changed. Rather than going straight onto the main road (A2), it was a right out the field and through some trail sections and a new housing estate before picking up the old route. On the whole it was mainly on roads.

The hill at 3k was more of a steady climb and not too bad as we were all still feeling pretty fresh. Up until 8k the course was undulating (as they say) so you had to go by effort rather than pace.

There was some great support out there from locals, marshals and a solitary ambulance lady who was superb.

The vast majority of TRAC runners had disappeared into the distance and the only one I could see was Georgie, who also was ever creeping further away from me.

Just before 8k the sun came out so it started to warm up.

Next came the 8k sign and I saw the hill. I remembered this from last time. Doesn’t go on forever but is nasty towards the end of the race. It was a case of digging in and once at the top knowing you had about 1 mile left of flat and downhill to the finish.

The finish was back on the same sports field with a long 100m grass straight to the line. This made for some epic battles including Chris Pascoe v Mark Croucher and Chris Brenchley v Alex Horsley (Canterbury Harriers) to name but a few.

Well done everyone today. Some great performances for both the Men and Ladies. Really excited to see how we get on..

TRAC team results from today:

Pos	Gen Pos	Name	Chip Time
13	13	Matt McCarthy	00:37:23
17	17	Chris Brenchley	00:38:09
30	28	Jay Bailey	00:39:12
33	31	Jamie Hipgrave	00:39:34
40	38	Chris Pascoe	00:40:11
41	39	Mark Croucher	00:40:12
47	5	Georgie Judge	00:41:02
66	58	Phil Stevens	00:42:30
86	75	Mark Skelton	00:45:09
116	99	Steve Suttle	00:47:09
139	20	Jo Kemp	00:48:07
184	151	Pete Heath	00:51:34
267	69	Lainey Cater	00:56:41
323	226	Mark Hadden	01:01:02

For the latest Club Champ standings, please follow the below links:

TRAC Club Championships 2025 – Ladies Latest Standings

TRAC Club Championships 2025 – Mens Latest Standings

The next and LAST race of our Club Champs/Kent Grand Prix is the Ashford Givaudan 10k (12th Oct). This is also the Kent Short Course Champs. Please come along and help us make a strong TRAC finish.

See the below link to enter:

https://www.sportingeventsuk.com/e/givaudan-ashford-10k-8297